In-Chambers Shoving Match Alleged Between Two Texas Judges

An alleged in-chambers shoving match between two Texas judges in front of a Dallas County sheriff’s deputy is now being investigated by the Texas Rangers.

But accounts of the incidents differ, and one of the two jurists tells the Crime blog of the Dallas Morning News that the incident yesterday at the George Allen Courthouse has been overblown.

“I went to talk to him about a couple of e-mails he sent and he was verbally abusive. I pointed my finger at him and he pushed it away. That’s it,”says 14th Civil District Court Judge Eric Moyé of his encounter yesterday with 14th Civil District Court Judge Carlos Cortez. The e-mails related to court business, says Moyé.

But Roger Mandel, an attorney who is representing Cortez, says his client “was physically assaulted by Judge Moyé in Judge Cortez’s chambers.”

A spokesman for the Dallas County sheriff says the department decided it was the better part of valor to have an independent agency investigate the incident.